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A Wave  of  Horror 


A COMPARATIVE  PICTURE  OF 
THE  LOS  ANGELES  TRAGEDY. 


By  HENRY  M.  TICHENOR 


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PUBLISHED  AND  COPYRIGHTED  1912 

The  National  Rip-Saw  Publishing  Co. 

SAINT  LOUIS,  MISSOURI 


Rip-Saw  Series  No.  8 


10M-1-1-12 


□ c 


in 


D 


44 


kdkui,  ^ ALDtN  MAR  2 9 1954 


INTRODUCTORY. 


This  contribution  to  Socialist  propaganda  literature 
is  not  intended  as  a mere  production  for  the  passing  mo- 
ment, based,  though  it  largely  is,  on  a passing  incident. 
The  writer  hopes  it  will  grow  in  value,  as  an  expose  of 
Capitalism,  as  the  Socialist  movement  grows.  The  Los 
Angeles  tragedy  is  only  one  of  the  countless  blots  that 
stain  a vicious  arrangement  of  human  society — a society 
that  is  openly  perpetuated  by  strife  and  warfare*  Were 
it  necessary,  volumes  could  be  written  of  the  awful  tales 
of  horror  that  Capitalism  has  been  guilty  of  in  all  times. 
The  object  has  been  in  this  little  offering  to  draw  a com- 
parative picture  that  will  condemn  class  rule  and  its 
resulting  wars.  I trust  that  this  humble  effort  will  meet 
the  approval  of  my  comrades,  and  that  it  will  be  largely 
placed  in  the  hands  of  non-Socialists  and  so  stimulate 
them  to  a wider  investigation  of  the  Cause  so  dear  to  us. 

Fraternally  Your  Comrade, 

HENRY  M.  TICHENOR. 

Winfield,  Kans. 


3 


3 


When  every  bloody  man  of  war  is  taken 
jut  and  sunk,  and  all  of  hell’s  artillery  is  ham- 
mered into  junk,  and  the  Plunderbund  is 
swatted  stiff,  and  only  those  who  toil  shall  eat 
and  wear  and  use  the  things  from  mill  and 
mine  and  soil,  and  folks  that  do  the  work  that ’s 
done  shall  own  the  tools  and  jobs  and  will  not 
feed  the  drones  on  corn  and  they  themselves 
eat  cobs;  when  Labor  blows  its  trumpet  blast 
in  hallelujah  tones  and  nothing  but  a garbage 
heap  is  left  of  Kings  and  thrones,  and  every- 
one shall  sit  beneath  his  fig-tree  and  his  vine, 
and  the  tides  of  life  shall  mingle  in  the  human 
and  divine,  and  a little  child  shall  lead  them, 
as  the  old,  old  story  ran,  I will  meet  you  there, 
my  comrade,  in  the  Brotherhood  of  Man. 


4 


A WAVE  OF  HORROR 


Tlie  press  reported  that  a “wave  of  horror  swept 
over  the  land  when  Janies  B.  McNamara  confessed-  to 
blowing  up  the  Los  Angeles  Times  building  and  thereby 
destroying  21  lives.” 

This  speaks  volumes  for  the  reputation  of  the  work- 
ing class. 

The  Wave  of  Horror  vividly  disclosed  the  fact  that 
the  world  is  not  accustomed  to  tales  of  wholesale  murder 
committed  by  members  of  the  working  class — that  it 
was  fairly  stunned  to  realize  that  workingmen — wage 
slaves — should  do  so  foul  a deed. 

I am  not  going  into  the  details  or  into  any  resume  of 
the  case — that  has  been  amply  exploited.  Nor  am  I going 
into  the  pros  and  cons  of  probabilities  or  circumstantial 
aspects  of  the  awful  affair. 

All  the  way  from  the  absolute  acceptance  of  the  con- 
fession of  James  McNamara,  that  he  is  the  lone  guilty 
party,  to  the  expressed  opinion  of  those  who  assert  that 
the  whole  thing  is  a monstrous  frame-up  engineered 
from  start  to  finish  to  destroy  the  trades  union  move- 
ment, the  inside  facts  of  which  may  never  be  known,  I 
leave  to  conjecture. 

That  the  trick  was  turned  at  the  psychological 
moment  when  the  Los  Angeles  election  seemed  like  a 
victory  for  the  working  class;  that  unusual  and  unheard 
of  leniency  towards  the  self-confessed  dynamiters  was 
openly  published  before  the  judge  pronounced  the  sen- 
tence, I will  not  here  attempt  to  explain;  that  such  re- 
markable predictions  as  the  following,  clipped  from  one 
of  the  many  remarkable  press  reports  from  Los  Angeles 
the  day  of  the  judge’s  sentence,  and  which  says:  “If 


o 


the  men  live  and  prove  exemplary  prisoners  they  will 
come  under  the  operation  of  the  parole  law  in  seven 
years,”  that  all  these  things  may  appear  strange  and 
extraordinary,  I will  not  here  discuss. 

We  can  do  a lot  of  guessing  and  that  is  all.  Only 
future  developments,  and  they  may  fail,  can  unravel  this 
most  mysterious  of  criminal  cases,  from  the  kidnapping 
at  Indianapolis  to  the  sensational  confessions  at  Los 
Angeles. 

I rest  on  the  premise  that  James  McNamara  blew  up 
the  Times  building  and  slaughtered  21  men  because  he 
says  he  did. 

I admit  the  savor  of  “a  nigger  in  the  woodpile,” 
but  at  present  nobody  outside  the  star  chamber  can 
smell  him  out. 

What  I wish  to  call  attention  to  is  the  fact  that  this 
Wave  of  Horror  swept  the  land  over  the  confession  of  a 
workingman  that  he  did  this  killing. 

It’s  quite  a rarity,  is  this  wave  of  horror  sentiment 
over  wholesale  murder.  We  understand  now  why  it  is 
a rarity — it  is  because  workingmen  are  not  in  the  habit 
of  doing  wholesale  murder  on  their  own  account. 

Wholesale  and  retail  murder  to  get  an  enemy  out 
of  the  way  has  always  been  the  pleasant  pastime  of  the 
ruling  class. 

No  particular  wave  of  horror  accompanies  their 
bloody  game. 

Nay,  statues  are  erected,  and  lauding  histories  are 
written  of  the  ruling  class  murderers. 

War  for  plunder  has  been  just  as  respectable  as 
Sunday  schools  in  the  eyes  of  Christian  rulers  for  nine- 
teen centuries. 

No  Wave  of  Horror  when  the  trusts  wanted  the 
Philippine  Islands  and  the  only  way  to  get  them  was  to 
murder  the  natives  into  subjection. 


6 


No  Wave  of  Horror  when  the  Christian  capitalists 
of  this  country — I believe  the  whole  bunch  claim  to  be 
Christians — if  there  is  a heathen  among  them,  I beg  to 
be  corrected — shot  down  the  workingmen  at  Homestead, 
at  Pullman,  at  Cripple  Creek  or  the  Coeur  d’Alene. 

Not  a wave  went  forth  from  pulpit,  press  or  justice- 
bench  at  these  horrors. 

Murder  looks  all  right,  if  only  the  “upper  classes’’ 
commit  it,  or  hire  thugs  to  do  it  for  them. 

The  thing  has  been  so  damnably  common  and  uni- 
versal that  the  conscience  and  horse-sense  of  the  race 
has  become  thoroughly  seared  and  benumbed  by  centu- 
ries of  atrocities  committed  by  the  master  class. 

* * * * * * 

Two  hundred  and  sixty-four  miners  killed  in  the 
coal  mines  at  Cherry,  because  the  capitalist  mine  owners 
had  wantonly  refused  to  protect  the  mines  according 
to  the  mining  laws  of  Illinois; 

Nobody  went  to  the  pen. 

A hundred  and  forty  seven  working  girls  burned  to 
a crisp  in  a shirt  waist  fire  trap  in  New  York; 

No  Wave  of  Horror  big  enough  to  sentence  anybody 
for  this. 

The  New  York  courts  acquitted  the  owners  of  the  fire 
trap. 

Waves  of  horror  do  not  sweep  that  way. 

What  is  war  but  murder? 

You  don’t  believe  me?  Listen  to  what  Senator 
Chauncey  M.  Depew  once  said.  He  was  not  a Socialist, 
as  you  are  doubtless  aware.  Mr.  Depew  said  at  a repub- 
lican convention  a few  years  ago : 

“What  is  the  tendency  of  the  future? 

Why  this  war  in  South  Africa  ? Why  this 

hammering  at  the  gates  of  Pekin?  Why  these 

7 


/ 


parades  of  people  from  other  empires  and  other 
lands  ? The  American  people  produce  two 
thousand  million  dollars’  worth  more  than  we 
consume,  and  we  have  met  the  emergency,  and 
by  the  providence  of  God,  by  the  statesmanship 
of  William  McKinley  and  by  the  valor  of  Roose- 
velt and  his  associates,  we  have  our  market  in 
China,  we  have  our  market  in  Porto  Rico,  we 
have  our  market  in  Hawaii,  we  have  our  market 
in  the  Philippines”. 

IIow  do  you  like  that  sort  of  news,  you  chloro- 
formed victim  of  the  greatest  aggregation  of  saints 
that  ever  composed  a God-fearing,  Christian  nation? 

We  produce  “two  thousand  million  dollars’  worth 
more  that  we  can  consume”  and  so  we  go  out  to  murder 
and  call  it  war,  and  preachers  pray  God  to  help  our  side 
— to  help  us  butcher  “the  enemy” — so  we  can  sell  the 
things  our  own  workingmen  and  women  are  too  poor 
to  buy. 

Does  any  Wave  of  Horror  sweep  over  you  when  you 
m ditate  on  this  ? 

It’s  awful  to  think  that  James  McNamara  could 
have  blown  up  the  Los  Angeles  Times  building  and  kill 
21  men,  even  though  he  thought  the  building  was  owned  by 
an  enemy  of  his  and  his  craft. 

Mind,  I admit  all  this  with  you — I abhor  murder. 

But  what  of  your  “Christian”  government  murder- 
ing the  Filipinos  so  we  could  sell  them  the  goods  the 
wage  earners  of  America  created,  but  did  not  own? 

This  is  all  right,  isn’t  it? 

Didn’t  Chauncey  Depew,  and  he  a devout  Christian, 
say  it  was? 

He  said  it  was  fine — said  it  was  a “providence  of 
God,”  and  didn’t  need  any  wave  of  horror  to  follow  in 
the  wake.  As  the  poet  puts  it, 


8 


“The  holy  spirit  guides  aloft  the  shrieking  shot 
and  shell 

And  Christian  people  shout  with  joy  at  thou- 
sands blown  to  hell.  ” 

* * *•  * * * 

“Murder  is.  murder, ” said  the  man  who  boasts  that 
he  shot  a Spaniard  in  the  back,  when  he  heard  of  the 
arrest  of  the  McNamaras. 

It  is — all  the  way  from  the  crucifying  of  Christ  by 
the  Capitalist  class  down  to  the  last  gasp  of  the  tuber- 
culosis victim  of  the  sweatshop  and  tenement. 

Two  hundred  thousand  working  girls,  capitalist 
wage  slaves,  unable  to  feed  and  clothe  themselves  on  the 
paltry  pay  they  receive,  driven  into  prostitution  every 
year ; 

This  is  MURDER. 

Any  Wave  of  Horror  bothering  you  about  this? 

It  does  me — I have  tried,  convicted  and  sentenced 
the  whole  capitalist  system  for  its  bloody  crimes,  and 
no  “ parole’ ’ proposition  is  strung  to  my  sentence,  either. 

“Murder  is  murder” — if  you  don’t  believe  it,  go 
into  your  grocery  store  and  see  the  poison  printed  in 
small  type  on  the  canned  goods  the  food  trusts  put  out. 
MURDER? 

The  whole  ‘damnable  cut-throat  capitalist  system 
was  sired,  spawned  and  suckled  on  murder  and  could 
not  live  a day  without  it. 

Talk  about  murder — our  government  and  rulers 
have  James  McNamara  skinned  a city  block  on  the  mur- 
der proposition. 

Look  at  the  sad-faced  little  children  of  the  slums 
and  factories,  underfed  and  illclad;  look  at  the  ema- 
ciated women  in  the  sweatshops  and  mills;  look  at  the 
rented  shacks  the  working  class  call  homes;  look — -oh, 


9 


stop,  don’t  look  at  all — it  might  change  your  politics,  up- 
set your  religion  and  make  a rebel  out  of  you. 

Better,  if  you  belong  to  the  privileged  few,  eat  , drink 
and  be  merry  and  go  to  heaven  with  Pierpont  Morgan 
when  you  die — maybe.  Unless,  perchance,  there  be, 
after  all,  a grain  of  truth  in  the  words  of  Him  who  said, 
‘‘Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed.  For  I was  an  hungered, 
and  ye  gave  me  no  meat;  I was  thirsty  and  ye  gave  me 
no  drink ; I was  a stranger,  and  ye  took  me  not  in ; naked 
and  ye  clothed  me  not.” 

But  apparently  Jesus  has  been  fixed  by  the  church 
so  his  words  don’t  amount  to  anything,  anyway. 

All  you  need  do  to  be  saved  is  to  be  baptized  and 
say  your  prayers. 

From  the  viewpoint  of  successful  capitalism,  His 
talk  about  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  toward  men  is 
all  rot. 

Go  into  your  postoffice  in  this,  our  Christian  nation, 
and  read  the  “Murderers  Wanted”  signs,  if  you  don’t 
believe  it. 

Your  boy  can  have  an  opportunity  to  enlist  and  go 
out  and  shoot  somebody,  or  get  shot  himself,  for  $16  a 
month  if  he  is  strong  and  able-bodied. 

This  beats  “peace  on  earth”  and  “brotherhood  of 
man”  to  a frazzle. 

* * * * * * 

I do  not  believe  in  all  this  land  anybody  felt  worse 
than  I did  when  the  news  of  James  McNamara’s  confes- 
sion came.  I could  not  believe  that  any  member  of  the 
working  class  would  resort  to  the  savage  methods  of 
the  capitalist  class.  It’s  hard  to  accept  it.  But  what 
galled  me  most  was  the  wave  of  horror  that  was  imme- 
diately set  in  motion  in  the  capitalist  press  and  pulpit 
by  a parcel  of  wolves  that  have  countenanced  all  their 
lives  ftll  kinds  of  heartless  murder,  from  the  starving 


10 


and  freezing  of  their  own  kith  and  kin  to  the  shooting 
of  workingmen  in  Idaho  bull  pens. 

I can’t  stand  for  the  master  class,  with  their  slave 
pens  and  sweatshops  and  stolen  wealth  on  one  side  and 
their  gatling  guns  and  armed  thugs  on  the  other,  to  slob- 
ber over  murder. 

I have  no  mortal  use  for  the  self-confessed  methods 
of  James  McNamara — but  I have  a damned  sight  less 
use  for  the  whole  pack  of  hypocritical  thieves  that  have 
stolen  their  millions  and  back  their  stolen  property  with 
cannon. 

Pardon  my  strong  language,  but  nothing  less  fits  the 

case. 

The  wan,  hungry  faces  of  the  outraged  victims,  the 
sobs  of  the  women  and  babies — oh,  the  horrible  murders 
of  Mammon.  These  haunt  me  and  will  when  'the  McNa- 
mara affair  is  long  forgotten. 

For  me,  I take  my  pledge  with  George  Kirkpatrick : 

“I  refuse  to  slay  your  mother’s  son.  I re- 
fuse to  plunge  a bayonet  into  the  breast  of  your 
sister’s  brother.  I refuse  to  slaughter  your 
sweetheart’s  lover.  I refuse  to  butcher  your 
little  child’s  father.  I refuse  to  wet  the  earth 
with  blood  and  blind  kind  eyes  with  tears.  I 
refuse  to  assassinate  you  and  then  hide  my 
stained  fists  in  the  folds  of  any  flag.  I refuse 
to  be  flattered  into  hell’s  nightmare  by  a class 
of  well-fed  snobs,  crooks  and  cowards  who 
despise  our  class  socially,  rob  our  class  eco- 
nomically and  betray  our  class  politically.” 

Nay,  more — I refuse  to  uphold  a Christless  system 
that  makes  an  Otis  hire  hungry  scabs  and  drives  a rebel- 
lious workingman  to  deeds  of  violence  in  retaliation. 


11 


I give  my  pledge,  my  life,  that  the  earth  shall  be- 
long to  all,  and  feed  and  clothe  all  in  Brotherhood  and 
not  War. 

This  is  the  lesson  in  the  McNamara  case,  if  lesson 
were  needed. 

* * * * * * 


This  Wave  of  Horror  that  swept  the  land  because 
James  McNamara  confessed  that  he  blew  up  the  Los 
Angeles  Times  building,  and  thereby  killed  21  men — do 
not  let  this  wave  depart  until  it  engulfs  all  manner  of 
murder  and  outrage  that  a society  of  class  rule  breeds. 

Do  not  let  it  depart  until  it  arouses  you  to  the  crime 
of  one  class  doing  all  the  useful  work  and  another  class 
taking  the  proceeds. 

In  all  this  world  of  murder  there  is  but  one  cure  for 
murder,  that  is,  Socialism. 

The  trial  is  over  at  Los  Angeles,  Job  Harriman,  the 
Socialist,  was  defeated  after  its  sensational  ending,  but 
the  capitalist  system  of  hate  and  murder  goes  on. 

Because  the  McNamaras  have  dropped  off  the  map, 
do  not  for  a moment  imagine  your  morbid  hunger  for 
murder  stories  need  cease  to  be  gratified. 

Your  Wave  of  Horror  can  still  go  on  doing  busi- 
ness at  the  old  stand. 

Pick  up  your  capitalist  paper — you  are  possibly  too 
poor  to  take  a Socialist  paper  at  50  cents  a year,  so  you 
take  a capitalist  sheet  at  50  cents  a month — and  read  it. 

See  anything  about  murders? 

You  will  find  enough  about  preventable  mine  disas- 
ters, railroad  wrecks  and  burning  fire  traps  to  fill  all  our 
penitentiaries,  were  the  greedy  horde  who  care  more  for 
dollars  than  human  lives  brought  to  justice,  leave  alone 
the  horrible  war  news  around  the  world. 


12 


Hardly  a newspaper  printed  but  it  tells  the  story  of 
some  disheartened  mortal,  hungry  and  homeless,  com- 
mitting suicide  because  a master  class  owns  all  the  jobs 
and  refuses  to  let  him  use  one. 

MURDER? 

Don’t  stop  at  being  horrified  at  the  McNamara  case 
by  any  means ; read  up  on  some  of  the  big  slaughters  that 
come  off  as  regular  as  clock-work. 

If  the  capitalist  papers  fail  to  furnish  enough  mur- 
der stories  to  keep  your  Wave  of  Horror  in  motion,  read 
the  history  of  the  civilized  and  christianized  white  man. 

It  beats  Blue  Beard  and  the  tales  of  the  South  Sea 
cannibals. 

Any  section  of  our  Christian  master  class  can  double- 
discount the  wildest  heathen  that  ever  prayed  to  a wooden 
god  when  it  comes  to  butchering  humans. 

If  there  is  anything  that  Christian  civilization  is 
long  on  it’s  the  art  of  murder. 

When  it  comes  to  savage  machines  for  taking  hu- 
man life,  your  white  man’s  country  has  no  competitor. 

For  a record  of  blood-curdling  butchering  the 
“ Christian”  stands  in  a class  all  by  himself. 

“ Christian”  England  took  the  Hindoo  “rebels”  that 
imagined  their  own  land  belonged  to  them,  and  loaded 
them  into  the  mouths  of  cannon  and  shot  them  off,  just  to 
show  the  poor  deluded  pagans  how  the  pious  followers 
of  the  gentle  Jesus  did  things. 

Over  in  the  Philippine  Islands  our  beloved  rulers, 
instead  of  blowing  a native  “rebel”  out  of  the  mouth  of 
a cannon,  blew  his  belly  full  of  water  till  it  burst  and 
death  ended  the  awfullest  kind  of  torture. 

Did  you  have  any  Wave  of  Horror  down  your  way 
when  this  beastly  method  of  murder  was  going  on? 


13 


Or  is  it  all  right  to  murder  for  the  Plunderbund  and 
dub  it  “patriotism”  and  “manifest  destiny”  and  “be- 
nevolent assimilation”  and  all  the  other  polite  names  that 
are  coined  to  make  bloodshed  a holy  act? 

Let  me  tell  you  that  murder  is  murder,  no  matter 
how  you  try  to  veneer  the  accursed  crime. 

A Wave  of  Horror — have  you  ever  read  the  story  of 
the  Irish  famine  and  how  British  royalty,  nobility,  gen- 
tility and  lordly  land  pirates  all  took  enough  grain  rent 
that  awful  year*  from  Irish  peasants  to  have  fed  the 
thousands  who  died  there  of  starvation? 

“The  Queen  has  lands  and  gold,  mother; 

The  Queen  has  lands  and  gold, 

While  you  are  forced  to  your  empty  breast 
A skeleton  babe  to  hold — 

A babe  that  is  dying  of  want,  mother, 

As  I am  dying  now, 

With  a ghastly  look  in  its  sunken  eye 
And  famine  upon  its  brow.” 

“There  is  many  a brave  heart  here,  mother, 

Dying  of  want  and  cold, 

While  only  across  the  Channel,  mother, 

Are  many  that  roll  in  gold; 

There  are  rich  and  proud  men,  there,  mother, 

With  wondrous  wealth  in  view, 

And  the  bread  they  fling  to  their  dogs  to-night 
Would  give  life  to  me  and  you.” 


*The  Irish  famine  was  a potato  famine.  English  landlords 
take  the  grain'  and  most  of  the  hogs  for  rent,  leaving  the  Irish 
tenants  to  subsist  mostly  on  potatoes.  A good  crop  of  grain 
was  raised  the  famine  year,  but  the  potatoes  had  rotted  in  the 
ground.  The  grain  was  taken  for  rent  and  the  Irish  starved. 


14 


“A  Wave  of  Horror” — At  ought  to  have  deluged  the 
earth  long  ago. 

The  rack-renting  in  Ireland  and  America,  too,  still 
goes  on. 

It’s  a famine  all  the  time  for  multitudes  all  over  the 
civilized  world. 

The  great  murderers  of  the  earth  sit  on  thrones  and 
live  in  splendor. 

The  McNamaras  are  the  smallest  kind  of  fry. 

They  have  gone  to  the  pen — the  big  assassins  still 
stalk  about. 

The  amazing  wonder  is  that  the  earth  isn’t  over-run 
with  half-crazed  dynamiters. 

The  whole  social  structure  is  crazy,  blood-thirsty 
and  brutal. 

Hate  begets  hate,  just  as  love  will  beget  love  when 
we  become  decent  enough  to  try  it. 

“The  Queen  has  lands  and  gold,  Mother; 

The  Queen  has  lands  and  gold, 

While  you  are  forced  to  your  empty  breast 
A skeleton  babe  to  hold.” 

“The  foxes  have  holes  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have 
nests,  hut  the  son's  of  men — millions  of  them — have  not 
where  to  lay  their  heads.” 

“A  Wave  of  Horror” — may  it  sweep  over  mankind 
until  Socialism  ends  a monstrous  system  where  pluto- 
cratic parasites  own  lands  and  gold  and  the  women  of 
the  working  class  hold  skeleton  babes  to  empty  breasts 
— where  it  is  considered  all  right  and  “patriotic”  to  go 
out  and  murder  that  these  parasites  may  revel  in  splen- 
dor and  fools  go  frantic  and  sing  of  the  glories  of  war 
and  feel  no  waves  of  horror  over  the  crime. 

* * * * * * 

A Wave  of  Horror  over  the  mad  act  of  James  McNa- 
mara that  killed  21  men? 


15 


Awful  as  it  was,  it  isn’t  a puny  drop  in  the  bloody 
bucket. 

Listen — this  is  from  the  New  York  Independent — 
not  a Socialist  paper.  This  conservative  journal  said  in 
its  issue  of  March  14,  1907 : 

“It  is  the  common  consensus  of  opinion 
among  investigators  that  industrial  casualties 
in  this  nation  number  more  than  500,000 
yearly.  Dr.  Josiah  Strong  estimates  the  num- 
ber at  564,000.  As  there  are  525,600  minutes  in 
a year,  it  may  readily  be  seen  that  every  minute 
(day  and  night)  our  industrial  system  sends  to 
the  grave-yard  or  to  the  hospital  a human  be- 
ing, the  victim  of  some  accident  inseparable 
from  his  toil.  We  cry  out  against  the  horrors 
of  war,  but  the  ravages  of  industrial  warfare 
are  far  greater  than  those  of  armed  conflict. 

* * # But  whose  interest  is  it  that  the  lives 

of  the  workers  shall  be  guarded?  The  employer 
class  has  no  material  interest  in  the  matter. 

The  worker  is  “free”  legally,  to  refuse  to  work 
under  dangerous  conditions.  If,  economically, 
he  must  accept  work  under  these  Conditions  (or 
starve),  that  is  another  matter.” 

And  yet,  every  mine,  mill,  factory  and  railroad 
could  be  so  guarded  with  safety  appliances  that  acci- 
dents and  loss  of  life  would  be  reduced  to  a minimum. 

But  what  does  the  Plunderbund  care  for  human  life 
when  Dollars  are  in  sight? 

What  does  a workingman  or  a workingwoman  or  a 
child  of  the  working  class  amount  to,  anyway,  in  the 
eyes  of  the  masters  that  the  working  class  votes  to  main- 
tain in  power? 

What  do  the  masters  care  that  Disease,  the  dirty 
brood  of  Poverty  and  Filth,  reaps  its  awful  harv  .st  every 


16 


year,  if  only  more  Dollars  can  swell  their  Coffers?  Noth- 
ing— and  the  masters  can  murder  every  minute  of  the 
day  more  than  James  McNamara  could  have  killed  if 
the  Los  Angeles  Times  building  had  been  packed  with 
human  beings  from  cellar  to  roof  the  night  he  set  off 
his  dynamite;  and,  be  it  said  to  the  disgrace  of  beings 
boasting  of  being  made  in  the  image  of  God,  no  wave  of 
horror  follows  the  fiendish  deeds  of  the  masters. 

This  thing  of  Hell,  this  murder  trade,  has  gone  on 
for  ages  and  will  continue  just  as  long  as  we  run  this 
earth  as  a gambling  den  instead  of  a home  for  the 
workers. 

It  will  go  on, one  continual  tragedy,  until  all  classes 
are  merged  into  one  class — the  working  class — and  the 
earth  shall  be  owned,  operated  and  used  for  all  the  chil- 
dern  of  men. 

So  long  as  anarchy  reigns  in  our  industrial  structure, 
juggling  millionaires  out  of  the  lucky  few  and  driving 
the  millions  into  poverty,  just  so  long  will  some  jobless 
victim,  or  some  blind  leader  of  jobless  victims,  likely 
throw  the  deadly  bomb.  Just  so  long  will  some  tool  of 
the  masters,  sitting  in  power,  decorate  and  desecrate  our 
postoffices  with  enticing  appeals  to  young  men  to  join  an 
army  of  killers  whose  sole  purpose  is  to  keep  the  mas- 
ters in  power. 

Unless  we  heed  the  gospel  of  Socialism  and  recog- 
nize human  brotherhood  in  all  the  means  of  producing 
and  distributing  our  daily  bread  and  unless  we  do  this 
pretty  soon,  only  God  knows  what  will  happen. 

“ Within  a short  time,”  says  Victor  Berger,  “we 
shall  have  TWO  NATIONS  in  every  civilized  country, 
and  especially  in  America,  both  of  native  growth.  One 
nation  will  be  very  large  in  number,  but  semi-civilized, 
half-fed,  half-educated  and  degenerated  from  over-work 
and  misery;  the  other  nation  will  be  very  small  in  num- 
ber, but  over-civilized,  over-fed,  over-cultured  and  de- 


17 


generated  from  too  much  leisure  and  too  much  luxury. 
What  will  be  the  outcome?  Some  day  there  will  be  a 
volcanic  eruption.  The  hungry  millions  will  turn 
against  the  over-fed  few.  A fearful  retribution  will  be 
enacted  on  the  capitalist  class  as  a class,  and  the  inno- 
cent will  suffer  with  the  guilty.  Such  a revolution  will 
retrograde  civilization;  it  might  throw  the  white  race 
back  into  barbarism.’ ’ 

Congressman  Berger  speaks  the  truth  and  any  man 
or  woman  who  does  not  to-day  realize  that  he  speaks  the 
truth  is  a blind  interpreter  of  past  history  and  present 
day  conditions. 

Do  you  want  something  infinitely  more  awful  than 
happened  in  France? 

Do  you  want  a Wave  of  Horror  too  appalling  to 
contemplate  ? 

Do  you  want  Murder  absolutely  unchained  from  its 
mad-house  and  the  dogs  of  internecine  war  turned  loose? 

If  you  do  not  want  these  things,  you  had  better  get 
busy  right  away. 

I want  to  tell  you  there  is  no  time  to  lose. 

At  this  very  hour  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands 
hungry,  homeless  and  out  of  work. 

There  is  a vast  army  who  know  no  way  to  settle 
social  wrongs  save  to  destroy,  pillage  and  kill. 

This  is  the  fruit  the  tree  of  Capitalism  has  borne. 

This  is  the  harvest  gathered  from  a social  system 
that  creates  two  classes — one  that  does  all  the  useful 
work  and  another  that  does  no  useful  work,  but  takes 
all  the  proceeds. 

This  is  the  monstrous  crime  Humanity  is  guilty  of 
when  it  denies  any  member  of  its  race  full  and  free  op- 
portunity to  produce  and  own  those  things  the  body  and 
mind  require. 


18 


You  fling  defiance  into  the  face  of  the  Almighty 
when  you  believe,  assist  or  knowingly  vote  that  one  class 
shall  live  off  the  sweat  of  another’s  brow. 

* * * * * * 

James  McNamara  blew  up  the  Los  Angeles  Times 
building  because  he  saw  in  Harrison  Gray  Otis  an  enemy 
of  organized  labor. 

It  was  class  fighting  class  with  fang  and  claw. 

It  was  the  war  way,  the  murder  way. 

Was  it  right?  No.  Was  it  wisdom?  No.  If  the 
McNamaras  had  been  Socialist  students,  instead  of  preju- 
diced and  ignorant  members  of  the  democratic  party, 
they  would  have  struggled  to  overturn  the  system  that 
creates  class  war,  hate  and  poverty,  and  would  have  ap- 
pealed to  their  blind  followers  with  tons  of  Socialist 
literature  instead  of  exploding  sticks  of  dynamite. 

You,  who  shudder  with  a Wave  of  Horror  at  the  act 
of  James  McNamara,  are  doing  something  that  is  liable 
some  day  to  explode  with  more  tragedy  than  the  wreck 
and  slaughter  of  The  Los  Angeles  Times  building  when 
you  stick  your  devilish  republican  or  democratic  ticket 
into  the  ballot  box  and  register  your  vow  that  a band  of 
pirates  shall  rob  the  working  class  of  nine-tenths  of  what 
it  produces — aye,  that  shall  condemn  thousands  of 
workers  to  not  even  have  a chance  to  work  at  all  and 
receive  a niggardly  one-tenth  of  their  labor. 

A Wave  of  Horror? 

Would  to  God  I could  paint  the  picture  of  desolation 
your  rotten  old  party  ballot  perpetuates  in  this  land  of 
plenty. 

From  the  cotton  fields  of  the  South,  where  the  sad- 
faced women  and  children  toil  in  the  fields  for  a chance 
to  merely  exist  on  this  beautiful  earth,  and  eat  and  sleep 
in  hovels  that  their  proud  masters  would  think  unfit  ken 
nels  for  their  dogs,  on  to  the  industrial  Wage-slave  warrens 


19 


of  our  Northern  cities,  where  paupers  beg  for  jobs  and  eat 
the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  rich  man’s  table,  on  through 
the  wilderness  of  thieves,  harlots,  outcasts  and  tramps, 
on  through  jails  and  asylums,  through  the  slums  and  into 
the  hideous  night — man,  woman,  won’t  you  shudder  at 
this  foul  thing  a herd  of  greedy  swine  have  made  of  our 
common  heritage? 

And  you  vote  that  this  nightmare,  this  insult  to  God 
and  man,  this  tribute  to  devils,  shall  go  on? 

And  yet  you  have  a wave  of  horror  when  James 
McNamara  confesses  to  murdering  only  21  men. 

Man,  the  Plunderbund  you  vote  to  keep  in  power 
runs  a string  of  bloody  exhibitions  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific  that  make  the  McNamara  performance  look 
like  thirty  cents. 

You  have  sent  the  McNamaras  to  the  penitentiary  at 
San  Quentin.  But  what  good  will  that  do  if  you  send  a 
tool  of  the  Plunderbund  to  the  White  House? 

* * * * * * 

Just  as  the  McNamaras  are  taken  to  the  penitentiary 
for  killing  21  men — a horrible  incident,  if  you  please,  of 
war  between  labor  and  its  masters — nearly  a hundred 
miners  are  suffocated  and  roasted  in  the  mines  at  Brice- 
ville,  Tenn. 

Near  this  scene  of  death,  at  Fraterville,  in  the  same 
state,  about  700  miners  were  put  to  death  in  1902  by  a 
mine  explosion. 

Safe-guarding  appliances  in  the  mines  to  prevent 
these  holocausts  cost  money — explosions  cost  only  the 
lives  of  workingmen. 

Workingmen  are  plentiful  and  cost  less  than  safety 
appliances  and  Capitalism  in  Christian  America  runs 
things  on  a cash  register  basis. 

Capitalism  can  murder  and  devastate  like  a fiend 
with  no  Wave  of  Horror  to  sentence  the  murderers  to 
the  pen. 


20 


Over  in  famishing  India  King  George  holding 
high  carnival  at  his  Durbar  acclamation — the  regal  fete 
that  proclaims  him  tyrant  of  the  Hindoos. 

Millions  of  dollars  spent  in  gorgeous  festivities  for 
this  royal  bum — dollars  wrung  from  the  sweat  and  an- 
guish of  the  working  class — and  at  the  very  moment  mil- 
lions starving  to  death  in  India  because  English  lords 
have  robbed  them  of  their  products. 

A famine  in  India?  Yes.  A famine  in  China? 
Yes.  But  the  granaries  of  India  and  China  are  full  of 
food,  the  product  of  fat  years  before  the  famine  came. 

But  those  that  produced  all  this  food  do  not  own  it. 

The  capitalists,  who  do  no  work — the  loafers — they 
own  the  bread,  because  we  run  our  social  system  that 
way. 

Listen — Bishop  Sellow,  of  the  Free  Methodist 
Church,  a returned  missionary  from  the  famine  district 
in  China,  states  that  though  hundreds  of  thousands  have 
died  of  the  pestilence  brought  on  by  hunger,  there  is  no 
real  shortage  of  food,  but  the  food  is  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  men. 

“There  is  food  in  plenty,”  declares  Bishop  Sellow, 
‘ 4 within  reach  of  the  famine  area,  but  it  is  just  as  impossi- 
ble for  a starving  people  to  obtain  a handful  of  rice  as 
it  would  be  for  a pauper  to  borrow  money  without  secu- 
rity. In  the  famine  area  there  is  rice  in  plenty.  But  the 
upper  classes  have  it  for  sale.” 

“The  upper  classes  have  it  for  sale” — did  you  ever 
notice  anything  similar  to  this  in  America? 

When  it  comes  to  dollars  and  cents,  what’s  the  differ- 
ence between  a “heathen”  and  a “Christian”  plutocrat, 
anyway  ? 

The  truth  is,  there  are  no  real  famines. 

Nature  can  produce  enough  in  one  good  year  to 
feed  the  world  for  three  or  four  years,  and  occasionally 
withholds  the  rain  in  order  to  give  the  soil  a little  rest.  Of 


21 


course,  there  are  barren  spots  of  earth,  but  there  is  more 
than  enough  good  country  everywhere  to  care  for  the  race. 

We  have  had  it  drummed  into  us  that  famine  and 
pestilence  are  visitations  of  Providence. 

It’s  a blundering  lie.  They  are  visions  of  capitalism. 
Capitalism  is  the  devil  that  walketh  about  as  a roar- 
ing lion  seeking  whom  it  may  devour. 

If  you  doubt  this,  I might  quote  some  Scripture  for 
you — passages  that  the  average  preachers  are  prone  to 
overlook  in  their  strenuous  efforts  to  save  souls.  The 
Old  Book  is  full  of  them — here  are  a few  that  will  do : 
You  will  find  this  in  the  X Psalm.  It  reads : 

“The  wicked  in  his  pride  persecuteth  the  poor.  He 
sitteth  in  the  lurking  places  of  the  villages;  in  the  secret 
places  doth  he  murder  the  innocent;  his  eyes  are  privily 
set  against  the  poor.  He  lieth  in  wait  secretly  as  a lion  in 
his  den ; he  lieth  in  wait  to  catch  the  poor ; he  doth  catch 
the  poor,  when  he  draweth  them  into  his  net.” 

Yes — Capitalism  sits  in  “lurking”,  in  “secret” 
places,  and  concocts  all  the  devilment  that  pesters  the 
race. 

That’s  the  main  occupation  of  your  prominent  repub- 
lican and  democratic  politicians. 

They  “catch  the  poor”  and  they  “draw  them  into 
their  net.” 

No  matter  by  whom  and  for  whom  The  Los  Angeles 
Times  building  was  dynamited,  the  sensational  confes- 
sion on  the  eve  of  election  was  pulled  off  exactly  on  time 
to  “catch  the  poor”  and  “draw  them  into  their  net.” 
One  press  report  from  Los  Angeles  reads1 

“Every  effort  was  made  to  connect  Harri- 
man  (Socialist  candidate  for  mayor)  directly 
with  the  McNamara  case.  No  point  was  left 
uncovered.  The  night  before  election  a large 
squad  of  men  were  sent  from  house  to  house  in 


22 


large  districts,  telling  that  Harriman  had  been 
arrested  charged  with  complicity  in  bribing  ju- 
rors in  the  McNamara  cg,se.  # * * In  op- 

position to  the  Socialists  was  a compact  group, 
consisting  of  the  preachers,  the  saloonkeepers,  the 
proprietors  of  all  the  gambling  houses  and  the 
houses  of  ill-fame.  The  churches  were  still  far- 
ther aided  by  the  women  who  infest  all  the  ho- 
tels and  apartment  houses  where  the  white  slave 
traffic  is  openly  acknowledged  to  exist.  All  of 
the  corrupt  element  in  the  city  banded  together 
and  fought  desperately  to  keep  the  Socialists 
out. — (From  Milwaukee  Daily  Leader.) 

Capitalism,  backed  by  “preachers,  saloonkeepers 
and  proprietors  of  houses  of  ill-fame,  ’ ’ lied  like  hell  and 
charged  Job  Harriman,  the  latchets  of  whose  shoes  not  a 
one  of  them  is  worthy  to  unloose,  with  being  connected 
with  a crime. 

And  the  lie  drew  enough  into  the  “net”  to  defeat 
Harriman. 

The  infamy  of  this  elegant  bunch  of  capitalist  lick- 
spittles and  their  cowardly  conspiracy  to  defeat  Social- 
ism ought  to  call  for  another  wave  of  horror. 

The  outfit  would  crucify  Christ  again  to-day  rather 
than  see  a Socialist  victory. 

Capitalism  is  destroying  over  a million  lives  a year 
in  these  United  States — murdering  them  outright,  starv- 
ing them  and  making  physical  and  moral  wrecks  of  men, 
women  and  children. 

It  is  war,  heartless  war,  from  the  first  day  of  Jan- 
uary till  the  last  day  of  December,  year  after  j^ear. 

Child  slavery  exists,  because  child  labor  can  be  got- 
ten cheap. 

The  cradle  is  furnishing  tender  flesh  and  blood  for 
your  masters  to  grind  into  coin.  No  matter  to  them  if 


23 


the  little  children  do  not  live  long,  no  matter  if  their 
joyless  lives  are  soon  snuffed  out  by  the  accursed  system. 

What  does  Big  Business  care  for  murder — unless 
some  crazed  workingman,  like  the  McNamaras,  chance 
to  do  the  murder — then  comes  a wave  of  horror. 

More  than  500,000  human  beings  crushed  every  year 
in  preventable  accidents  and  mine  explosions ! 

That  is  nothing,  compared  to  the  profits  in  the  game. 

More  than  600,000  girls  living  in  prostitution  and 
white  slavery,  because  capitalism  pays  them  wages  too 
small  to  live  honest  lives. 

The  average  lives  of  these  girls  is  five  years. 

The  white  slave  syndicate  figures  on  needing  200,000 
fresh  recruits  every  year  to  assure  an  attractive  stock,  as 
some  quit  the  business,  or  become  too  diseased  to  keep 
it  up,  before  the  five  years  roll  around  with  its  death 
sentence. 

When  you  vote  for  Capitalism  you  vote  for  this 
thing  to  go  on. 

And  that  unknown  quantity  carried  off  annually  by 
disease  bred  of  filth  and  unsanitary  conditions  and  pov- 
erty— the  biggest  toll  of  all  to  the  god  of  Mammon. 

But  what  of  this,  anyway,  man?  Why,  your  capi- 
talist courts  have  declared  that  a workingman  is  only 
worth  $350  more  than  a mule,  and  it  is  blamed  hard  and 
expensive,  too,  to  collect  the  $350. 

After  your  lawyers  and  courts  are  done  with  you,  I 
should  judge  you  would  be  left  with  about  seventy-five 
cents  clear,  so  virtually  you  bring  in  the  neighborhood 
of  six  bits  more  than  the  mule.  I suppose  a woman  would 
not  be  worth  so  much-,  and  a child  less. 

Here  is  the  court  decision  that  has  established  the 
market  value  of  a workingman.  The  decision  was  ren- 
dered in  the  federal  court,  at  Cleveland,  in  December 
last  (1911),  and  the  rendering  is  reported  as  follows: 


24 


“The  jury  in  the  federal  court  awarded  the 
Hailey-Okla.  Coal  Co.  $30,507  damages  against 
the  Globe  Oil  Co.  for  losses  occasioned  in  the 
explosion  in  the  Hailey  ville,  Okla.,  mine  in 
1908.  The  verdict  places  the  damages  for  29 
men  dead  and  10  wounded  at  $500  each;  for 
mules  at  $150  each.” 

This  discloses  what  you  would  probably  bring  on 
the  auction  block.  If  you  are  young  and  strong  you  are 
wTorth  $500 ; mules  $150. 

It  will  be  noted  that  there  is  no  discrimination  in 
allowing  settlement  between  the  29  that  were  killed  and 
the  10  that  were  wounded. 

The  wounded  probably  had  a leg  or  arm  torn  off 
or  their  eyes*  put  out. 

They  were  just  as  useless  to  the  capitalist  class  as 
the  dead  ones. 

The  federal  court  figured  them  all  alike  in  the  dam- 
age suit. 

Some  of  you  white  victims  of  the  capitalist  system, 
who  vote  a capitalist  ticket  because  you  are  afraid  of 
“nigger  equality,”  ought  to  sit  up  and  take  notice. 

Your  “equality”  has  petered  out  away  below  the 
“nigger”  of  the  old  chattel  slave  days. 

He  used  to  be  worth  from  a thousand  to  fifteen  hun- 
dred dollars,  with  board  and  clothes  thrown  in. 

You  have  slumped  the  market  down  to  a measly 
$500,  without  any  board  and  clothes,  and  have  to  get 
killed  to  collect,  at  that. 

You  had  better  cross  yourselves  with  a jack  and  be 
mules. 

Mules  keep  along  about  the  same  old  price  and  get 
their  fodder  to  boot. 

Anyway,  you  know  now  where  you  stand.  The  dif- 
ference between  a workingman  and  a mule  is  $350 ; when 


25 


you  see  a workingman  voting  a republican  or  a demo- 
cratic ticket  you  will  hardly  think  there  is  that  much 
difference. 

* * * * * * 

A Wave  of  Horror — :do  you  know  anything  about  the 
manufacturing  of  our  common  lighting  matches? 

Do  you  know  that  the  manufacturers  use  deadly 
white  phosphorous,  because  it  is  cheaper,  which  causes 
a horrible,  lingering  and  fatal  disease  of  the  bones  of  the 
jaw,  torturing  the  lives  and  killing  multitudes  every 
year? 

This  disease,  “Phossy  Jaw,”  is  incurable,  the  manu- 
facturers know  that  the  white  phosphorous  will  kill  the 
workers,  but  profit  is  profit  under  capitalism,  and  work- 
ingmen and  women  and  children  are  cheap  and  plenty. 

Dr.  E.  Harlan  Wells,  expert  on  tuberculosis,  re- 
cently said : 4 4 Medical  scientists  have  discovered  that  the 
factors  concerned  in  the  perpetuation  and  propagation 
of  this  disease  (consumption)  are  overwork,  child  labor, 
poverty  and  want.”  And  he  goes  on  to  say:  “Wh^n  the 
wealth  of  the  nation  is  so  distributed  that  each  man  re- 
ceives enough  and  no  man  too  much — then  only  may  we 
hope  to  see  tuberculosis  eradicated.” 

Disease  is  but  another  form  of  the  wanton  murder 
that  an  abnormal  social  system  creates. 

Every  well-informed  person  is  aware  of  this  fact, 
and  yet  no  Wave  of  Horror  seems  to  bother  anybody — 
unless  they  chance  to  catch  the  deadly  germs  them- 
selves. 

The  sweatshops  of  any  of  our  great  cities,  where  your 
coat  or  your  wife’s  cloak  likely  came  from,  commit  more 
murder  with  filth-bred  tuberculosis  germs  every  year 
than  James  McNamara  could  commit  the  rest  of  his  life 
by  his  coarse  methods. 

4 4 What  are  you  Americans  going  to  do,”  writes  Lin- 
coln Steffens,  4 4 about  conditions  which  are  breeding  up 
healthy,  good-tempered  boys  like  these  McNamara  boys, 


26 


really  to  believe,  as  they  most  sincerely  do — they  and  a 
growing  group  of  labor — that  the  only  recourse  they 
have  for  improving  the  conditions  of  the  wage  worker  is 
the  use  of  dynamite  against  property  and  life?” 

Well,  I can  answer  for  the  Socialist  Americans,  Mr. 
Steffens.  We  propose  to  tear  up  root  and  branch  of  the 
accursed  “conditions”  that  you  yourself  admit  are 
breeding  war  into  the  hearts  of  any  men — be  they  rob- 
bed workers,  or  the  robbers  themselves.  This  is  the  sad 
part  of  it  all — that  you  and  others  cannot  or  will  not 
discover  the  Socialist  way  of  production  and  distribu- 
tion of  wealth. 

Jesus  saw  the  thing  to  do,  and  taught  the  brother- 
hood of  man  as  his  social  message  to  the  race. 

Marx  and  Engels  disclosed  the  same  message,  and 
made  it  so  plain  that  “the  wayfaring  man,  though  a fool, 
shall  not  err  therein.” 

They  taught  brotherhood  and  equal  opportunity  of 
use  in  all  the  tools  that  produce  and  distribute  the  things 
we  all  require. 

These  tools  comprise  the  land,  machinery,  mills, 
mines,  factories,  railroads,  steamships  and  other  means 
of  public  transportation,  the  telegraph  and  telephone 
systems — they  comprise  everything  we  all  need  to  use  in 
order  to  provide  food,  clothing,  shelter,  education  and  all 
the  essentials  of  life. 

This  is  Brotherhood  and  Salvation  in  the  only  sense 
of  the  words  that  amount  to  anything  at  all. 

Anything  else  is  sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cym- 
bals. 

This  is  the  only  thing  that  puts  an  Otis  out  of  com- 
mission and  makes  the  deed  of  a McNamara  unheard  of. 

How? 

That’s  not  hard  to  answer. 

Under  the  present  system  of  class  rule,  Otis  and  his 
class  own  the  tools  and  own  the  jobs. 


27 


McNamara  and  his  class  own  nothing  but  their  labor 
power  and  hungry  stomachs. 

The  class  that  owns  the  tools  loans  them — gives  the 
jobs — to  those  who  are  willing  to  use  them  for  the  least 
returns — the  lowest  wages. 

The  lower  the  wages,  the  higher  the  profits. 

The  game  is  to  force  the  wages  of  the  working  class 
down,  so  as  to  send  the  profits  of  the  capitalist  class  up. 

This  isn’t  conducive  to  brotherhood  and  peace;  this 
is  out-and-out  fratricide  and  class  war. 

This  is  war  at  home ; turn  back  and  read  what 
Chauncey  Depew  said  brought  on  war  abroad.  War 
abroad  is  to  force  more  markets  wherein  to  sell  the  stolen 
products  of  labor — the  products  that  labor  should  have 
had  for  its  own  use — so  as  to  create  more  profits  for  the 
useless  class. 

The  devil  himself  couldn’t  have  arranged  anything 
more  abominable  than  our  social  system. 

It  is  a system  of  legalized  robbery  maintained  by  le- 
galized murder. 

Socialism  proposes  to  establish  a fraternal  govern- 
ment of  the  working  class,  the  chief  purpose  of  which 
government  shall  be  to  operate  the  great  industries  of 
the  nation  and  return  to  the  workers  the  full  product  of 
their  toil. 

Socialism  is  not  vindictive,  nor  does  it  ask  of  the 
capitalist  class  amends  for  past  wrongs  to  the  workers. 

On  the  contrary,  Socialism  is  generous  to  the  limit 
— it  invites  the  predatory  class  to  join  the  working  class 
and  become  part  of  the  working  class,  that  there  may 
finally  be  but  one  class — all  comrades. 

After  all,  there  are  not  many  of  the  capitalist  class. 
They  are  few  in  number.  The  great  majority,  the  work- 
ers, can  soon  absorb  them. 

The  savage  owned  the  earth  and  its  products  in  com- 
mon— and  shall  not  we,  with  our  vastly  improved  ma- 


28 


chinery  and  methods  for  producing  wealth,  be  as  wise 
as  he? 

Socialism  does  not  propose  to  own  private  wealth  in 
common.  It  only  proposes  to  own  the  great  wealth-pro- 
ducing tools  in  common. 

Your  home  and  all  its  surroundings  shall  be  your 
private  property.  And  you  shall  have  a home — not  a 
rented  tenement. 

What  could  be  more  hateful,  more  abnormal,  than 
this  condition  wherein  the  class  that  owns  the  tools  of 
production  does  not  use  them,  and  the  class  that  uses 
them  does  not  own  them? 

Can  you  imagine  on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward 
men  under  such  a master  and  slave  arrangement? 

Can  anything  but  war  exist  under  such  a state  of 
affairs  ? 

# # # # # # # 

I have  enumerated  only  a few  of  the  crimes  of  capi- 
talist class  rule.  I have  not  begun  to  tell  them  all.  Their 
name  is  legion. 

What  I have  tried  to  do  is  to  make  you  have  a Wave 
of  Horror  at  every  kind  of  murder  and  outrage,  and  not 
wait  until  another  McNamara  commits  some  crime  out  of 
the  ordinary. 

This  whole  social  fabric  of  ours  is  built  on  hate,  and 
strife  and  war. 

Socialism  comes  with  a message  of  love,  and  har- 
mony and  peace. 

The  McNamara  case  will  roll  into  the  annals  of  the 
past  and  the  particular  Wave  of  Horror  it  produced  will 
be  no  more. 

But  never  mind,  just  make  it  your  business  and  duty 
to  become  horrified  at  every  form  of  murder  and  rank 
injustice  you  can  discover — and  it  will  amaze  you  at  the 
awful  multitude  that  will  be  disclosed  to  your  view. 


29 


When  the  scales  fall  from  your  eyes,  and  as  you  are 
human  and  not  demon,  you  will  shudder  at  this  thing 
we  call  civilized  society.  You  will  see  the  old  serpent 
that  trails  around  the  globe  and  leaves  its  deadly  venom 
in  every  home.  It  carries  the  creed  of  hell  itself,  and 
men  fall  down  and  worship. 

Listen — this  creed  tells  you  that  one  class  in  this 
world  was  destined  to  do  all  the  toil,  and  another  class 
to  live  in  idleness  and  ease. 

It  tells  you  that  murder  is  right  in  order  to  keep 
this  privileged  class  in  power  and  the  other  class  in  servi- 
tude. 

This  serpent  rules  supreme,  and  spreads  foul  pesti- 
lence in  its  track. 

Poverty,  Misery,  Disease,  Insanity  and  War  are 
blazed  in  yellow  letters  on  its  black  scales. 

The  name  of  this  serpent  is  Capitalist  Rule. 

Can  we  destroy  this  monster? 

Shall  we  destroy  it? 

Yes,  we  can  and  will,  else  there  be  no  God  in  the 
Universe  and  no  Soul  in  Man;  else  every  hope  and  de- 
sire of  the  human  heart  is  a delusion ; else  every  promise 
of  the  past  and  every  righteous  demand  of  the  present 
is  a lie. 

The  McNamara  tragedy  is  but  a passing  incident 
in  the  awful  war  of  capitalist  rule. 

It  is  only  one  of  the  countless  murders' done  along 
the  Serpent’s  deadly  trail. 

If  it  had  been  done  by  your  capitalist  rulers  to  pro- 
tect them  in  their  game  of  exploitation,  no  Wave  of 
Horror  would  have  swept  the  land. 

These  men  were  not  Socialists — they  belonged  to 
one  of  the  old  exploiting  political  parties  and  had 
learned  their  lesson  from  their  masters. 


30 


This  does  not  absolve  the  McNamaras,  but  it  shows 
that  the  Socialist  way  is  the  only  way  to  end  war  and 
murder. 

The  capitalists  boast  that  the  McNamara  confes- 
sion defeated  the  Socialists  in  the  Los  Angeles  election. 
With  53,000  Socialist  votes  in  that  city,  the  Socialists 
can  well  afford  to  laugh  at  such  a defeat.  The  McNa- 
mara case  will  help  our  cause.  It  demolishes  for  all  time 
the  utility  of  such  tactics. 

The  rank  and  file  of  the  labor  unions  will 
follow  the  example  of  their  brothers  of  Europe  and  go 
into  politics.  They  will  find  their  political  home  where 
they  belong,  in  the  International  Socialist  Organization. 

The  longer  they  delay  this,  .the  more  galling  will  be 
the  chains  that  bind  them. 

Everything  these  good  days  works  for  Socialism — 
for  the  glad  time  coming  when  Waves  of  Horror  will  not 
sweep  over  the  land  any  more,  when  the  desert  shall 
blossom  as  the  rose  and  peace  shall  flow  as  a river ; when 
the  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  Serpent’s  head, 
and  swords  shall  be  beaten  into  plowshares  and  spears 
iuto  pruning  hooks. 

It  is  written  that  War  shall  be  no  more. 


31 


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